Two artist creating while wandering.

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PAINTING
To paint the campervan we needed a good place where the van good stand outside as well as inside.

New Design Old idea

We went to the farm where Berth has a storage ‘shed’ which was once his workshop. When he picked up a piece of wood you saw the sculpture evolving in his head in the place where so many of his work evolved for so many years.

looking

We had a design for the van to make it a followup of Wanderlust I the narrowboat by using the same colour scheme. In the end we went against it and use green for the background of the painting and the poem. Wanderlust II is not a boat she does not float, she does not roam at a gentle speed, she moves us long distance. Somewhere you have 150 different greens, the green of spring is different than the green of summer. The summer green came with an edge of winter green, the hardware shop does not have the colours of an art supply shop.

action

We made our own green with the colours of Wanderlust I and a long mixing stick from the workshop. The prime colour is there waiting for the final touch of gold and red, in the end she follows the colour footsteps of all the other wandering vehicles we had.

you know the meaning

One site will have a poem the other will bear words and dates which make you question what you see, as when art becomes a documentation we will loose our aim. The van is not just a van it will be a story, a poem, a vision and a way to be.

The crew of Wanderlust is on route again, only this time we choose to go on the road in an old campervan. After long consideration we had to move into an other direction. The winter in Portugal gave us time to think not only about the Art Retreats but also about DABE-ART. We came to the conclusion, us artists love the aspect of bringing art to the people, as we did on our narrowboat. The idea of a static shop somewhere in Wales went into a large pit with a tree planted right there.

Great Crested Grebe with young.

We love the wandering, discovering of old and new places, getting inspiration while on the go, meeting people. The narrowboat had her limits, the places she could bring us had to be near water or otherwise well, boat on dry land goes nowhere.

a boat as roof

So an other vehicle was needed, our old idea of a wandering gallery in a campervan came back out the cupboard. More research was done into the possibilities and here we are in Wanderlust II on the road again.
Just 3 weeks ago we got this old lady, she needed some work on the engine and now she brings us where ever we wish. The next step will be to give her a special paint job so she stand out in the traffic jam.
Some of the lines will be made with letters forming a poem in 3 languages as we going through cultures and languages.

up in the sky 4 Spoonbills

Our first trip went to some old land for one of us, the place she was born and grew up. The trip took us to Strijensas, last visited 41 years ago. Places do not always alter in the wrong direction, this place certainly not. In 2006 they created from some old agricultural land a nature reserve, rewilding bringing back the wild and beautiful. Now 11 years later it sure looks just like a small wilderness with lots of water birds coming and going. The cows are still there but more in the shape of the wilder variety who wander along the area like kings and queens. While just around the corner on the other site of Het Hollands Diep you find a big industrial area with chemical industrie and power station.

industry and nature can go hand in hand

Boats move backwards and forwards with all kind of cargo right along the edge of the reserve. Wildlife do not mind, just give wildlife a change and it will wander along the track it creates herself. The area is not big but that doesn’t matter. On the edge is a marina with a camper place, for 7 euros you can park your camper right in the marina next to a channel. A very quiet spot with lots of walking and cycling tracks and not to forget boating.

eating Willow for a pain in the neck

The Netherlands finally join other countries into providing special places for campervans to stay, so you don’t need to go to the more expensive campsites. Right now while writing this we stand on a camper place by a farmer. We are surrounded by ‘Polderland’ land which once has been reclaimed from water. The ‘Polder Alblasserwaard’ has 22 camper places by farmers they are well worth visiting with fresh eggs for breakfast right next to you.

camper place on the farm

The area is known by the Dutch as the place by the big rivers, it is surrounded by ‘De Lek’, de ‘Waal’, de ‘Noord’, de ‘Beneden Merwede’, de ‘Boven Merwede’ and de ‘Oude Maas’, de ‘Dortsche Kil’, de ‘Nieuwe Maas’ and finally Het Hollands Diep which is more than a river.

In-between these rivers you find hundreds of small and bigger canals to channel the water away every day by low tide. The use of Windmills for this job goes back for centuries and the fight against water goes even further back. Here on de ‘Polder Alblasserwaard’ you find 19 windmills in a row but be aware it is very touristy so full of busses, the best time to visit is during the winter months.

pumping water

We are not here for just playing tourist info but for business. We have been excepted for several Art markets and festivals. They select the people who can join Art markets in Germany as well as The Netherlands, which is not a bad thing. Our first market will be in Dordrecht on 6 August from there we go to Venlo to set the navigator to Amsterdam, followed by De Bilt back to Dordrecht after which we go into Germany to Hamm and Dortmund. In December we go slowly but certainly south to France and ending in Portugal where we have an exhibition the whole of February. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to stay informed.

Here on the blog we tell you about our ventures in-between the markets and festivals.

While writing this the river flows by, outside my window. Where we are the river flows substantially due to being influenced by the tide, we are around 20 kilometres upstream from the Atlantic Ocean. The tide difference can be up to 3.5 metres, right now the tide comes in while the wind comes from the South giving the river a rushing flow going up not down.

our Yurt by the river site

The Rio Guadiana ends her flow between Vila Real de St Antonio in Portugal and Ayamonte in Spain, creating an impressive estuary which is on the Portugese site a nature reserve. At the end of the river (or for some people the beginning) you not only find several different water-birds including the Flamingo but also salt pans for the winning of the famous sea salt. At times human activities can go easy hand in hand with nature even depends on each other, the salt pans provide for the birds as the ocean provide for the salt pans. The Guadiana has a rich history with many battles therefor you see lots of castles along her shores. Now the castles are nothing more than tourist attraction as the European Union provides no need for canon fire anymore.

traditional boats

The journey of the river starts, as all rivers, high up in the mountains of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain from which she flows interacting with other rivers winding and binding through Spain entering Portugal just the south of Elvas. In modern days she feeds many reservoirs, providing water for agriculture and swimming pooles alike. The last part of the river forms the old border between Portugal and Spain, where we are.

The wild part Rio Guadiana

Much of the river stays wild winding through rocky cuts leaving her imprint in the landscape. When looking from above you see the many arms/branches of her site rivers/streams like a watertree in the rocks. How fluid breaks down solid rock year after year carving with patience a ’tree’ sculpture in the surface of the earth. Not only water flows down with the river, also soil, sand, pebbles, branches and all kind of debris which at times we better not recognise. We see small islands coming pass build up by reed with branches holding onto each other to become the resting ‘boat’ for birds hitchhiking on the tide. Yet, all this flowing and moving doesn’t stop the river to be totally silent, being like a reflecting mirror for the land.

pure silence

You can navigate the river up to Pormaroa, where you find a small jetty for pleasure boats, just down from the remains of the old big jetty from which the train would fill the boats with copper from the mines. Many international boaters, on a variety of yachts, take rest of their sea adventures on the river. They come from different countries been on many seas having plenty of stories to tell and songs to sing. Many of them settled, like us two canal dwellers, on the shores along the river where you see many simple ‘temporary’ buildings and their boats rest close by for trips to the Azoren, Madeira or further an ocean.

Pormaroa

The land wanderers also find a great resting place along the river, where they park there campers or vans of all kind of descriptions, contemplating on their next part to wander of to. So really, we didn’t wander of much from Wanderlust, just a different direction and certainly a different flow. No more locks to fill and empty, the bridges do not swing that much here. The water still let our wondering flow, giving us other directions for inspirational mentions by observations. We seem to be a bit on a flow here but it sure feels good.

camper reflections

This morning, before posting this blog, we saw Flamingos on the salt marshes, life is good here, sorry no camera with me.

We at dAbe Art always combined our commercial art with the not commercial art.
We create art for a market, for what people want to buy, as we can’t live from fresh air alone.
Together with other artists we feel strongly that commercialism blocks creative freedom and you might get trapped in making the same thing over and over again.

ik zie, ik zie wat jij niet zie

We would not have the groundbreaking work from Vincent van Gogh, if he would have painted what the market at that time demanded. Artists even loose their artistic freedom when working as community artists or creating funded work. The funding bodies are now a market themselves as they have to justify the money they spend, with other words thick the boxes. Artists also loose on health and safety, the insurance. At times the monetary value of the insurance is higher than that of the art work.

ground breaking

Dabe-Art used their own money for all projects which reflect their artistic expression and the spend time was never wasted though not paid.
We sell to eat, we live to create. We like to explore and love to push boundaries.

wonder

Right now we are starting once again a meaningless, boundless, aimless project in which we take the freedom to reflect and prospect. A project divided in two, the upper part where we sell and be commercial, the lower part where we act out our freedom to be artists. Or perhaps split into a front part and a back part or a left and a right or an in and out, cleave the subjects. We will be asking other artists to join us on this journey. Before you ask, yes we, again, will be planting trees on our route. Oh and before we forget: the art retreats are a part of our commercial exportation, but when you are interested we will add on the abstract expectation.

do you see the meaning?

Dabe-Art started the experimenting, the researching, the possibilities. We opened up some old ideas, which lay buried under sheets of dust. We look and search once again we might enhance the new into our old perspectivity (new word) perhaps a new world.
We will use this new space not only to sell put also to explore and to feel your anticipation.

The Wanderlust is back on the canals enjoying the tranquil feeling of being afloat. Behind us lays the Willow Spiral.

WILLOW SPIRAL

The Willow Spiral was a part of Spiral Journey 2015, we planted it together with the boating community of Mercia Marina. It is the only Spiral of the Journey which will be permanent. When we came back this year the planted Willow had a hard time yet as how Willow do it survived and with a bit of help started to grow once again. We filled the caps, pruned the dead bits, cut the grass.

BROKEN SLATE LOST WORDS

The slate on which the poems were written had broken, so we even picked up the pieces of the poems. On the bare slate new poems appeared, clearly poetry is a part of the Spiral.
With poetry in mind we had an other community event writing haiku or wishes. It was a lovely sunny day with many walkers joining in with us.

NEW ENCOUNTERS

We created a small seat in the centre of the Spiral with a small Haiku box filled with little canvas flags ready for a small poem, wish, dream, remembrance or any other messages to be taken by the wind.
The seat is sheltered by a stick Tipi, to create that special place for reflection.

HUNGRY WILLOW

The Willow will now look after themselves as some sure prove by ‘eating’ up the string which hold them. Nature will move in and take care while human write to remember the strength of nature.

For 8 weeks now we have been on the Artists on the Canals Tour and we will be for an other 4 weeks. It feels a lot longer as we have been organising this tour for months.
The tour started in Atherstone where we had a long week-end poppingUP our galleries.
It makes a nice difference to tour together, helping, sharing, cooperating most of all getting inspired.

the two art boats at Atherstone

Right before the start we had engine problems, I mean real engine problems with alarm bells going right left and centre. Repair after repair did not solve the problem so here we were cruising with from time to time the engine giving a right big scream showing red lights telling us turn me of much too hot here in the engine-room.
We were going in the locks together us without a running engine and the other boat moving us, lucky we were at a part of the canals with double locks.

together in lock

After some cooling down we followed our companion into the tunnel with a not so good engine, ready to shout and horn blowing for them to reverse to come and get us when all would go wrong.
All went fine exempt for the nerves.

popUP of 3 boats

While in popUP mode we don’t need the engine much as we have the solar panel for our electricity, only for the hot water we need fossil power.
It isn’t just nice for when in trouble to work together, doing something together we add to the other artists work and they add to our work. When you come along you see many different art forms and artistic expression not just one, new styles, new subjects all on narrowboats.

Tonies garden

The advantage of being in one place for a while you meet other very interesting and creative people. Tony Robinson who makes a lovely garden along the Aylesbury Canal, is one of them. He is well over 80 years old and do the gardening with what people donate to him, when the sun shines you will find him there. Nobody owns the garden, yet all enjoy it, thanks to a man who took time and initiative to create.
The garden has some of our plants and rocks in there and all he wants people to do is water it when dry, leave the rest to him, it is his ‘painting’ after all.

enjoyment

In between the popUP and exhibitions we have time for pure enjoyment, when the engine keeps going. The good thing of travelling with a narrowboat from place to place is you experience the environment in details. You hear the birds, you smell the flowers, you see the rocks.
So we went to the next spot to popUP again, even we are together we stay totally separate while our studios and work link up along the towpath.

Berkhamsted

In Berkhamsted we linked up with a canal site pub we remember from last year. The Rising Sun is right next to the lock. In summer it feels like you locking through the pub as the customers taking their seats right next to the lock.
After us the floating theatre would play one of their acts right next to the lock.
On the moment we are moored in Hemel Hempstead meeting up with other artists like the Angry Boater the comedian. Tomorrow I link up with a woman to work together on a poetry-film.
We even share our exhibition space with musicians and comedians in the Cellar Club at the Old Town Hall. Our art gives a very different background to their performances linking visual art with a different audience.
In Aylesbury we had an exhibition in The Queens Park Art Centre a lovely community art centre. Heidi Siggers one of the artists from Artists on the Canals linked here up to get her fantastic ceramic work fired in their kiln. It will be hard to accommodate a kiln on a narrowboat.

different perspective

We moored up at different spots giving a very different perspective and inspiration. Discovering new places with new inhabitants, not only the people who walk past with their dogs. People enjoying the towpath in many different ways, cycling, running, jogging, talking and now experimenting with art.
We had so many talks with people who got inspired by our work, not many galleries give you the experience to talk with the artists and see them at work.

dreaming

We also get inspired by these new environments and their individual beauty, to get a special place, one day, in the different floating galleries.
We will be moving on again next week towards Cassiobury Park at Watford where we will have an exhibition in The Cha Cafe. On Saturday 18 July we will be making a Spiral in the park with the locale community. At the same time the Watford and Busky artists society will come and express the landscape in drawings, paintings and other art-forms.
It will be a great way to end the Artists on the Canals Tour.

GLASS PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography has everything to do with light, exposure, shutter-speed, aperture, film sensitivity to light (ISO). Photography gives you the possibility to play with light, even alter the light. When we print the photos we take away that light as the printed material has no concept of light and blocks it out rather than let it in.

water reflection

Living on the water shows me everyday reflection of light. Light comes in waves, yet water need to be without waves to reflect. The reflection can be a mountain on the horizon or the drops of water under a floating feather.

floating feather

For the floating art project I went deeper into the aspect of floating reflections, the little picture within the big picture. At times the falling light creates shadows and at an other angle it creates a reflection. Two objects were chosen; the feathers of the geese and the fallen leaves from the Oak. On my knees, often even on my belly, I hanged over the canal with my camera almost touching the water surface. It became an act of balancing to capture the silence reflection of a floating feather or leaf.
After some weeks I started to recognise the perfect light for the photo I wanted.

Glass Landscape

Than came the printing, working with water, I asked the question what resembles water the answer for many would be Glass. The idea for printing on Glass was born. The see-through feature of Glass created an other dimension onto the printing. How to print a photo where you can see through yet still see the photo, next to this how to print on glass.

towpath feather

Research started while i was still figuring out the final result. I could imagine the see through feature of Glass, so the floating subject of the photo would float through any landscape, the landscape which was behind it. Creating art for the window an other extension of Glass and light.
There are several printers who print on glass as a part of indoor design, specially kitchen. When i was talking to them they didn’t really understand what i meant or what i wanted to achieve. After a visit to Format Festival in Quad Gallery, Derby i found a more artistic orientated printer.

factory feather

Now i had to make the photos more transparent so you can see through them. Photoshop is a new territory for me but i had to learn it quick and smart. The good thing of being on a boat with two artists you can dig into other peoples experience. The notes for this quick course will not go away as i will need them again.

rain shadows

Some more detailed telephone calls were made with the printer. In the past i made prints on stones and driftwood as a part of an other art project. The printer told me whatever is white in the photo will become the colour of the material it was printed on, this would become a problem with the feather. Well the technic moved on and this problem was solved. The colour white is in the process the fifth colour, the ink droplets are in two layers thermo-hardening resin. Not a cheap process but a long lasting one after 10 years the colours would fade less than 20% in an outdoors setting. You could hang them outside in the garden, my mind went wandering but had to stay focussed on the float project.
The glass was ordered using toughed Glass with rounded corners for safety reasons as they would be displayed in public places.

Exhibition in Queens Park Art Centre in Aylesbury

On a narrowboat the windows are not straight and the boats moves a lot, therefor 4 holes were drilled in the Glass to safely hang it in a narrowboat window. The final result became better than expected the reflection of light played around with the Glass. Rain drops shadows added to the art or even the reflection of the landscape in the photo.

landscape reflection in a photo

Follow the Glass Photos on Artists on the Canals tour, hope to see you somewhere on our tour and if you give this magic word you will get 20% reduction on the Glass Photos, opaque

We are retracing our boat-steps from last year but not just so, we will leave behind a trail of spirals. All them lovely spots from last year, which left a deep impression we will visit again, not alone but with a group of other floating artist on their narrowboats. As a group we have several exhibitions on the land and on our boats, see video to get a first impression.

back to where we came from

Right from the beginning of Land Art spirals were important, perhaps because we see so many wonderful spirals in nature and not just in plants also in animals like the tail of the Seahorse. So the idea to make spirals on our route as a community Land Art project was born. Each lovely place will get a spiral made in that landscape with what we can find in that landscape. As a part of the spiral a poem will be written, by them who make the spiral.

spiral tail

First the Wanderlust went back home, close to her home, where she was build. Last year we past it and planted an Oak nearby along the Trend and Mersey Canal, now we call it home, boat and crew. The Mercia Marina became our place to be in February. We can popUP our gallery here and sell our art while making it. The marina was very keen to hear about Spiral Journey and offered a place to make the Spiral.

spiral spotting

The first spiral of a group of spirals along the canals on our tour this year. We made the Spiral with Willow cuttings pushing them in the ground and weave them together. Willow is such a great art material and there was plenty of it around growing and flowing. You can make great living sculptures with Willow as they grow the tree themselves makes a sculpture started by human hands.

growing sculptures

So Spiral Journey started right near the home of Wanderlust. Boaters made this first spiral leaving something behind for the passing boats to wonder about and wander through. The spiral is big enough for people and their dogs to walk the spiral to the centre, where an other Oak was planted from the Shropshire Union Canal acorns seeded last year.

Spiral weaving

Willow Spiral could be made real big into a Land Art Forest, planting trees in the shape of a spiral people walking to the centre, all we need would be a piece of land large enough to accommodate a forest. Spiral journey will be preliminary to the Land Art Forest planted in the shape of a spiral. As from this moment anything sold from the Wanderlust 20% will go into the Land Art Forest and we will start to fundraise money on Crowd Funding Sites.

concentration

All the Spirals of Spiral Journey will come together in a book with the poems and photos of the Spirals, the selling of this book will go 100% into the Land Art Forest.
You can take part, this Saturday 9 May at Milton Keynes at the StonePit field. As the name says there are plenty of stones here to create the spiral with and to write a poem on.

Stone Pit Field

Two sand spirals will be made at Queens Park Art Centre Aylesbury, with children from 4 till 11 years old. The children will make some sand stories to take home and to leave in the spiral, poetry or figurative. After this a spiral will appear at Cassiobury Park near Watford on 18 July and anybody is welcome to join in followed shortly after by a spiral in the Peace Meadow as part of Linslade Canal Festival.

Willow hoop

You can follow the Artists on the Canals on Facebook to see where we are but here is a list:

Milton Keynes at the Great Linford park from 2 – 12 May

Aylesbury at the canals basin right in town from 17 – 30 May with an exhibition at Queens Park Art Centre

Berkhamsted the mooring by the Rising Sun Pub from 3 – 6 June

Hemel Hempstead several moorings from 9 – 28 June with an exhibition at the Old Town Hall

Cassiobury Park by the Iron Lock Bridge from 6 – 20 July with an exhibition at the Cha Cafe

The first Spiral for Spiral Journey will be made in the next few weeks, just a few miles away from Stenson where the Wanderlust was build in 1992.
On the moment we are moored at Mercia Marina near Willington along the Trend and Mercey Canal. It was here we planted last year one of the Oak trees, grown from an acorn found along the Shropshire Union Canal. The little Oak was planted in a hollow Willow tree which was sawn down to prevent it from falling.

the little Oak

Willows only live for a short time unless you coppice them. Now we will be making a Spiral as a part of Spiral Journey with people from the Marina. This Spiral will be made from Willow on a field next to the canal to virtual join the other Spirals which will be made along the canals. The field is a part of a wild life area and you can walk through it on the 3 circular walks from the Marina.

the field by the canal

The field was chosen, not only for its position next to the canal, but also for its natural beauty. The location in the field is near the foot-bridge over the canal so people can see the spiral from higher up when crossing the bridge. In a way it moves on from the Bridge project starting by a bridge.

the foot-bridge

We will be weaving the Willow as some of the Willows in the field did natural, it will grow together into a living wooden sculpture. Last year i made a living Willow sculpture along the Shropshire Union Canal and after just one season the woven branches grew together.

natural woven

Shropshire Union Willow

A poem written by the people making the Spiral about the landscape in which the Spiral grows. Everybody experience the landscape different and by writing these different experience in one poem will make people look at that landscape from a different perspective. Visitors can walk through the Spiral while reading the poem coming to the centre. In the centre we will plant Flowering Rush, which we call in Holland the SwanFlower which is appropriate for the Marina as the Swan is used on their information packet.

flowering rush swan-flower

On our route with the Artist on the Canals more Spirals will be made. Permission has been granted in Milton Keynes on the StonePit Field using the stones we find there and again with a special landscape poem. In Aylesbury 2 Spirals will be made with children at the Queens Park Art Centre, these Spirals will be made with sand. One will have a poem the other, as it will be made by small children between the age of 4 till 7, will have handprints. The people of Cassiobury park are very keen to make an other Spiral there, on the moment we are working out the details of this project. The last Spiral will be made as a part of Linslade Canal Festival and will appear on the Peace Meadow next to the canal close to an other footbridge.

popUP gallery at Mercia Marina

Keep an eye on our FaceBook page for more details to be involved with the making of the Spirals any of the Spirals and become part of the Spiral Journey.

We are busy making preparations for the floating art project Artists on the Canals. Next to all the phone calls and emails to organise it all my mind bubbles with making work for the exhibitions.
The theme for the exhibition is how the canals inspire our work, we show this in a video/sound installation and other work. So i decided to create work specially for this, not making work fit for it but really think about how the canals inspire me.

geese reflection

My childhood was spend on rivers and along rivers, in Wales i lived next to the wild coast of Pembrokeshire, so water is my element. Yet there is something special about the canals which you don’t find on the beach. Perhaps the reflections you get like a mirror seeing double. Yeh that certainly gives you inspiration but it is more.
Wandering over the canals that feeling of freedom well ja but.
While walking along the canals i wrote a little poem trying to catch that special feeling.

seeing the leaf falling
down
touching the cloud
on unsoiled ground
a little dimple
a circle off ripples
to float like a boat
through the clouds off reflections

touch the clouds

So on my knees i went to go close to the water to see it from an other perspective, getting that leaf getting the reflections. Yet most of all capture an atmosphere of stillness of two worlds touching each other in a perspective moment but never for real. Yet that leaf came from the sky turning in her last fall to float away on her last journey.

wet

The consequences were wet knees and many faces passing me with big ?? and some asking me what i was doing. Well i was getting close to my subject but never said that always talked about the project. One moment of turning reflections and the camera is wet as it almost touches the water.

tussen wal en schip

What i saw and what i now see, you only see when on your knees. You see here a small part of the many many images i took over the last months between all the phone calls, emails, searching for exhibition spaces, negotiations, informations and so on.
One photo comes on our promotion poster which will float from place to place.
So this land artist became a float on the water.

poem

Thats not all i want to show, thats not all i want to make. For me this water-life away from the land makes me turn like a leaf on the wind, looking for a new direction.
The books i made sold good but they miss something, they need to be more creative, creative writing not just telling a story, not just the words behind the image, something more.
Now i am learning how to make my own books, hand made books, what will come out of it, who knows.
The leave poem, you see here above, will be developed into a larger piece which will be filmed for the video installation.

working

What Berth will make will be a total surprise, we only show so much you just need to come to the exhibitions and see our boats. Its not just us the Wånderlust but also other art boats totally 4 art boats with their popUP gallery will be floating along to show the canals in a different way. Come along talk to us, see our work in the making, hear some poems.
When you are lucky you can participate in the making of a spiral with a spiral poem.